New Home, cracks in drywall. Whats the cause? fix?

I bought a new home 6 months ago and just recently I started noticing cracks in my drywall. They are all in the corners of rooms. Almost all the corners of my house has a hairline crack but these in particular are pretty bad.

I am wondering what caused this? I have been doing research and think it might be settling cracks, but I want some opinions to see if it might be something more serious. Its a pretty bad eye sore.

New Home, cracks in drywall. Whats the cause? fix?

Check that these corners even have tape. They do not look like it. If taped and a foundation issue the crack would be more ragged. If the studs where two wet (this happens too often) the cracks should not be this long. If you see that no tape was used you will know to look for many many more low quality workmanship in the house.

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New Home, cracks in drywall. Whats the cause? fix?

These are vertical cracks, which is inconsistent with settlement. Settlement cracks are almost always diagonal, and certainly would not appear exclusively in the corners. I go with the theory that the corners were not taped properly, or possible not taped at all.

New Home, cracks in drywall. Whats the cause? fix?

Im going to try to get in touch with builder, him and I haven't had the best relationship. After the first few repairs he stopped answering my phone calls. As much as I try to think otherwise I do realize he half-***** my home. I don't know what action I can take to get him to take responsibility other than legal action which is sure to be an expensive option.

Excuse me for being a total newbie (first time homeowner) but how easy would it be to fix the problem if it was that the corners weren't taped? What would the repair consist of?

New Home, cracks in drywall. Whats the cause? fix?

it is mind numbing to me that all corners would not have tape. I have seen improper fastening of corner framing move, have also seen movement in corners if framing was closed up to soon after being wet and not drying properly (which happens alot in todays hurry up finish it). Have also seen movement from not overlapping top plates , just butting walls. sounds like some excavation called for.

New Home, cracks in drywall. Whats the cause? fix?

"Excuse me for being a total newbie (first time homeowner) but how easy would it be to fix the problem if it was that the corners weren't taped? What would the repair consist of?"

This could turn out to be a rather big job if all of the corners are done this way. Repair would consist of taping, finishing, priming, repainting.

My concern would be that since the corners were not done properly, where the walls meet the ceilings may not have been done properly either. If a house was built and the taping step was skipped......I am at a loss for words.

Do what tpolk said, dig into the corner and see if you can peel out some tape. The corner is ruined already anyway. If it is missing, check the others and where the walls meet the ceilings. If you don't find any, I would seek legal advice on how to get the builder to make it right.

New Home, cracks in drywall. Whats the cause? fix?

Quote:

Originally Posted by tpolk

it is mind numbing to me that all corners would not have tape. I have seen improper fastening of corner framing move, have also seen movement in corners if framing was closed up to soon after being wet and not drying properly (which happens alot in todays hurry up finish it). Have also seen movement from not overlapping top plates , just butting walls. sounds like some excavation called for.

HMMM! I'm was thinking the exact same thing. Maybe they failed to nail the corners correctly. It would be interesting to see what the framing looked like! I would cut a section of rock out and start pulling on the framing. Actually, the reason I am mentioning it is I just ran into that very issue last week. I grabbed a stud and moved it two inches LOL!!!

New Home, cracks in drywall. Whats the cause? fix?

I agree with everything said so far.

One other point (and correct me if I'm wrong): Sometimes the joint mud is poor quality or not the right stuff for bedding tape. I always use DuraBond or SheetRock45 for bedding and from my experiences, it make a far better joint!

New Home, cracks in drywall. Whats the cause? fix?

There are many reasons for joints to crack, in addition to what's been said. I seriously doubt they omitted the tape. I would be willing to bet they did the hillbilly corner deal with one 2 x 4 overlapping the other with an offset to catch the other piece of drywall. While I have seen this a lot and not seen the same resulting cracks, if the two pieces of 2x4's were poorly nailed, I could see this happening. It doesn't really take much movement to crack paper tape.
If the house was built during lousy weather, temporary heat like kerosene or propane, along with all the added moisture of paint, drywall mud, etc. this would not be uncommon as the house dries out and the wood shrinks.
Like Ricky said, start with the simplest things first. Dig in the corner a little bit and see if you see the paper tape. If you aren't sure what you are looking for, get somebody over your house that does. If there is tape, I would cut some holes on either side of the corner and see what they did underneath. Chances are your problem will be only with these two corners. Drywall is not that hard to fix, just have somebody do it that knows what they are doing. Don't practice on your own house.
BTW, did you get any nail pops?
Mike Hawkins